Research in the Bradbury Lab focuses on understanding processes of injury and repair and developing therapies to restore function following central nervous system trauma, with a particular interest in glial scarring, extracellular matrix modification and neuroplasticity after spinal cord injury.

Our research

A spinal cord injury can result in a complete loss of sensation and motor function below the level of the injury, leading to permanent disability, and there are currently no adequate treatments. Research in the Bradbury Lab focuses on strategies to promote nerve regeneration and tissue repair, with the ultimate aim of restoring function to this severely debilitating condition. Improvements in mobility as well as bladder and bowel function would mean greater independence and quality of life for spinal injured patients (even small improvements could have a big impact). Our main approach has been to target inhibitory factors (glial scar matrix molecules) which prevent nerve regeneration and this work has led to the discovery that an enzyme called chondroitinase can promote recovery of sensory and motor functions following spinal cord injury in clinically relevant models which mimic the blunt trauma or contusion-type injuries that are the most common form of spinal cord injury in humans. This work has had a major impact in the field of spinal injury research, with chondroitinase therapy now a leading candidate for clinical trials.